As we all patiently wait for July and The Dark Knight Rises, odds are many of us will dust off that Blu-ray of The Dark Knight and give it a spin. Or seven. Christopher Nolan‘s second Batman film is so dense, there are new things to discover on each and every viewing. One example could be the intricacies of the score by Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard. Where did they get all that wonderful noise? One /Film reader thinks he found out.

After the jump, watch a video that believes to have found a hidden inspiration for Zimmer and Newton Howard’s score to The Dark Knight.

The theory seems plausible, especially with the kicker of the video (and first thing I thought of) that Edith Piaf’s music is used extensively on the soundtrack of Inception. Zimmer is probably just a massive fan and his creativity stems from listening to music like that in the past. Of course, the score to Edith and Marcel isn’t just straight Piaf, but a fan would have seen that movie.

On a side note, if you are unfamilar with Piaf and her music, you should probably check out La Vie en Rose, the 2007 biopic featuring an Oscar-winning performance by Marion Cotillard. The same Marion Cotillard who was in Inception as well as, you got it, The Dark Knight Rises. And we’ve come full circle.

So, what do you think? Is Zimmer plagiarizing, paying homage or is it all simply a coincidence?